A distressing update from Ukraine – we will be doing all we can to help and are grateful for the support that enables us to do so

Dear Pauline and Alan, From our letters and photos you could see that the Revival is working again, children and parents are smiling, joyful, happy.  We are also happy and satisfied  that together with you we are doing such a necessary thing.  We continue to do good job! But we are very sad when we see houses, schools, kindergartens, libraries, stadiums and much more destroyed by the bombing.  Also, the surrounding villages and dachas, where fierce battles took place and racists were defeated, were completely destroyed.  We are proud of our armed forces and territorial defense forces! The city is gradually coming to life, bus service has been restored, some trolleybus lines have been restored, so trolleybuses are already running on some routes.  But we bring our employees from remote areas with our own transport of our Centre.  Almost everyone got shelled houses in areas close to Russia and Belarus.  Rockets periodically arriving at military sites and airfields.  There are serious losses.  Passports and other documents are checked at checkpoints at all exits from the city.  Defensive structures are being built on the roads outside the city.  Everything reminds us that we have a war, although great battles are taking place in Donbass and southern Ukraine. I would like to inform you about one of our problems about the destroyed and damaged housing of the employees of our Centre during the massive bombings and shelling of our city with rockets and shells by the Russian occupiers. A total of 42 families were affected, four of them – houses were completely destroyed:

1. Natasha DERKACH is an accountant, she died of shrapnel wounds incompatible with life.  Her husband was seriously injured – he died in hospital without regaining consciousness.  Their son has survived, he was working in Poland at that time.
2. Volodymyr YUVCHYK – a worker of the maintenance  department, received injuries, contusions, was in hospital, has now started work.
3. Oksana SHTUPUN – cook, during the active hostilities lived in the Centre, working around the clock with two other employees of the food unit, preparing food for 90-100 people who at that time found social shelter in the Centre.
4. Valentina POPLAVSKA, a palliative care nurse, is currently working.

In all other 38 families, apartments or houses have damages of various degrees – windows, doors, walls, roofs, other property. Renovating housing costs a lot.  We do not aim to compensate them completely, but we need to provide at least a little help, so that these people can meet the winter cold with windows and doors, and so on.  And to make them feel that they are not alone with their problems.  We plan to provide financial support in range of 10 to 40 thousand hryvnias.  I sent the same information and request to Victor Kubik and Chris. Our employees Yuri (driver) and his wife Alla (sister-hostess) came to me with information and request.  Their daughter Katya lives in Belgorod-Dniester in Odessa region.  The city was also damaged by bombing, and the bridge that connected the city with Odessa through the estuary was destroyed.  Because of this, it is very difficult to get humanitarian aid to them.  Katya registers a volunteer organization that will deliver humanitarian aid to the city’s residents.  As you bring a lot of help to Moldova, if you want, you could determine part of it for these volunteers (their city near the border with Moldova), and they will deliver this help from Moldova to the residents of their city.  If you agree, I will provide your contacts for Katya to communicate and discuss this with you. With love and gratitude, Vasyl, Natalia, staff of the Revival Centre ххххххххххххххххххххххххх